Regular Joes, not just politicians, will have to pay attention to the federal Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare -- the much-debated, often maligned health care reform law -- because it requires everyone to have health insurance by Jan. 1, or pay fines assessed through income-tax returns.

People without insurance will turn to government-operated insurance marketplaces scheduled to open Oct. 1.

About 32 percent of El Paso County residents, including children, are without health insurance, federal government estimates show.

A coalition of seven El Paso agencies, headed by the United Way of El Paso, received a $642,181 federal grant to oversee health-insurance enrollment efforts here.

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Businesses with 50 or more full-time employees have until 2015 to provide insurance to workers, or face fines. Businesses with fewer than 50 employees don't have to offer insurance to employees under the Affordable Care Act enacted in 2010.

"There's a miscommunication about what needs to take place. The miscommunication is you can't wait" if you are a business operator because all businesses need to be looking at how the law affects their health-insurance options, said Cindy Ramos-Davidson, chief executive officer of the El Paso Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

Businesses with fewer than 50 employees aren't obligated to provide insurance, but they need to get involved because their employees are mandated to get insurance by Jan. 1, she said. Larger businesses can't afford to just sit through the one-year grace period because they don't want to face fees or fines in the future, Ramos-Davidson said.

Kelly Fristoe, a Wichita Falls, Texas, insurance agent and Obamacare expert who will conduct an El Paso seminar this week, said, "A lot of small employers are in a position where they are looking if it's good to continue offering (insurance) plans, or if it's better terminating their plans and send employees to the exchange market."

"We expect a mass exodus from the insurance market for small employers with big rate increases," said Fristoe, a partner in Financial Partners in Wichita Falls.

Ramos-Davidson and Richard Dayoub, president of the Greater El Paso Chamber of Commerce, said they've heard some El Paso business owners talk about dumping their employee insurance plans if rate increases are too steep. Some companies that will be required to offer insurance are looking at whether it would make sense to pay the fines instead of paying for insurance, Ramos-Davidson said.

Fristoe said Obamacare changes are expected to increase insurance costs for younger people, and decrease costs for older people. An employer with a young, largely male work force may see the highest rate increases, he said.

Fristoe will share his expertise in El Paso on Tuesday at an El Paso Hispanic Chamber-sponsored seminar. It will be at the Chase Suite Hotel, 6791 Montana, from 8 to 11 a.m.

Meanwhile, Enroll El Paso is preparing to open Oct. 1 with 18 paid "navigators," who will help uninsured El Pasoans analyze their insurance options in the federally operated insurance marketplace. The coalition also will train volunteers to be navigators, said Jennifer Buschick, Enroll El Paso's Navigator program director.

Blue Cross and Blue Shield and Cigna have said they will offer plans in the Texas insurance marketplace.

Businesses with less than 50 employees also will be able to buy insurance through the federally operated Shop Marketplace, and can receive tax credits worth up to 50 percent of insurance premium costs. Insurance agent Fristoe said only one insurance company is providing plans in the Texas Shop Marketplace.

People who don't get health insurance will pay fines that start out low next year and grow in future years. The fines are $95 per person and $47.50 per child, or 1 percent of a family's annual adjusted gross income, in 2014. The most a family would pay in 2014 is $285, according to information on HealthCare.gov, the website set up by the federal government to provide information about Obamacare requirements and also where people can enroll in a health insurance plan.

The federal government also will provide subsidies to help pay for health insurance to people in certain income levels. Those annual income levels range from $24,000 to $94,000 for a family of four, and $11,500 to $46,000 for a single person, reported the Kaiser Family Foundation, which regularly releases reports about Obamacare. Its analysis shows annual insurance subsidies, called tax credits, will average from $2,700 to $5,500 per family.

Individuals and families with lower incomes may qualify for government-funded Medicaid insurance or other insurance programs for children. More people are to be covered by a Medicaid expansion in some states beginning next year. But Texas has chosen not to expand Medicaid. That means some low-income families and individuals in Texas may fall into a gap where their incomes are too high to get Medicaid, but too low to qualify for subsidies in the new Marketplaces, according to information on HealthCare.gov

To muddy the waters further, some big companies are going into private insurance marketplaces. Last week, Walgreens announced it would provide insurance to more than 160,000 employees through the Aon Hewitt Corporate Health Exchange, which now is used by 18 large employers for health-insurance plans.

"This will be a very challenging fourth quarter for all of us to figure out how this affects us monetarywise, and the best ways to address it," the El Paso chamber's Dayoub said. "We will host a number of forums on this issue" in coming weeks, he said. The Hispanic chamber also holds insurance counseling sessions every other Friday at its offices.